The Hanging Tree
by kidforever
Summary: When shame brings Gale's name down to non-existence, he returns to District 12. What does he do? And what are the consequences? Two-shot. T for character deaths.
1. The Hanging Tree

**Author's Note: I've wanted to write a story about Gale and The Hanging Tree for a while now. So, here it is! WARNING: Multiple Character Deaths.**

* * *

The Hunter carefully tied the noose on the tree branch. Making sure the rope was secure; he stepped on the rock underneath the noose. It wasn't too heavy to kick away, so his death was certainly inevitable.

Gale smiled bitterly. He was back in District 12, finally. After nearly fifteen years in District 2, working as a top-ranking government official, his reputation was brought to shame. So what if he slept with the secretary of state, treasurer and hell, even the president? Gale loved women, and women loved him. He couldn't deny it, but he was always too rash. Gale knew that.

After resigning with shame, he moved back to District 12. He visited his family. They didn't know the real reason he came back. They didn't need to know. Hazelle, Rory, Vick and now grown-up Posy welcomed him with open arms after so many years.

But his short-lived happiness ran out. News travels faster in a newly built nation, Gale couldn't stop that. His family shunned him after new light shone upon his dealings with insider trading, murders and illegal marketing to gain more political power.

Gale Hawthorne was nobody. He didn't have any proof against the accusations so he humbly accepted them. What was he to do? No one cared. Everyone had moved on. Away from him. Leaving the saviour of District 12 lost. Whenever he walked down the roads of his District, people glared and whispered, while he bent his head down, fighting to keep back tears. Drowning himself in alcohol, Gale was a wretch. He had nothing to live for, until Katniss Everdeen came strolling back into life, one spring afternoon.

He had heard of the news that Katniss Everdeen, now Mellark, had just delivered a child. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to meet her, he visited the hospital. That insolent bastard Peeta Mellark wouldn't let him see her, his Katniss. Gale shoved past him and locked himself in the ward, alone with Katniss. He heard insolent pounding on the doors, but they wouldn't budge.

As he approached the bed, he could see Katniss's beautiful sleeping face, away in her dreams. In the crib beside her, he glanced at the baby. An exact replica of Katniss, olive skin, brown hair and… _Mellark eyes_. Those crystal blue eyes, blinked as the baby began to sleep.

Unbelievable rage came over Gale. Storming out of the building, as Peeta and their well-wishers stared at him in shock and anger, Gale began to cry. He wanted to kill. He wanted his grief to be known. He had lost everything. _He had nothing. _So that night, under the cover of darkness, Gale set fire to the hospital.

If there were ever something that he regretted in his useless life, it would be this. News broke out by the break of dawn and all of District 12 was on the scene. The most pitiful sight was Peeta Mellark, who had gone home for the night, weeping at the remains of his wife and child. In his hand, he was clutching a dandelion. The symbol of new life, Katniss had said. Everyone knew, for Peeta, there would be no life at all.

So here Gale was now, placing the noose around his neck. In his mind, there was a song that Katniss sang, while the rebellion was going on. He still remembered her clear voice.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree  
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.  
Strange things did happen here  
No stranger would it be  
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

Gale did murder three. The blood of Katniss and her baby were on his hands. Peeta was as good as dead without them. Not to mention the countless others he had killed, during political struggles and in the hospital itself.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree  
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.  
Strange things did happen here  
No stranger would it be  
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

He could remember Katniss. Her lovely laugh. Deep grey eyes. All that remained was a pile of ash.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree  
Where I told you to run so we'd both be free.  
Strange things did happen here  
No stranger would it be  
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

Gale still remembers the day he asked if they could run away together on the day of the reaping. Away from the Capitol, The Hunger Games and life itself.

_Are you, are you  
Coming to the tree  
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.  
Strange things did happen here  
No stranger would it be  
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

Kicking the rock away, his weight gave out and the rope snapped his neck in half. There Gale Hawthorne was hanged, with a smile plastered on his features, looking death straight at the face. This was all a game to him. Love, money and power. They meant everything to the Hunter.

But there are worse games to play.

* * *

**Author's Note: Truly sorry for the depressing ending. But don't worry, happier tales are on the way! x**


	2. Always

**Author's Note: Thank you to UDFlyers for the idea for a second chapter. I hope you guys like it. And finally, this sad story is officially over.**

* * *

He was broken. Nothing in the world could put him back together. The pieces that made him were strewn so far apart from each other that he would never be whole. Something so full of life, a pit of emptiness.

As Peeta lay on the creaky old floorboards of the attic, he groaned, a bottle in hand, and a knife in the other. His clothes were torn into rags, his once smiling face, a sea of despair. Blonde matted locks remained askew on top of his head as he shifted his weight onto his side.

No words came out. None could've been spoken.

Peeta tried desperately to release those tears. The ones that had been holding him prisoner since the death of his wife and child. He shut his eyes, squeezing them so no light would enter, before they began to ache and hurt.

_I have lost everything. Everything. _The mantra repeated in his head before it numbed his mind. Those words had no meaning any more. Neither did his life itself. He was gone. Gone farther than even the Capitol had inflicted upon him.

Shoving himself on to his side, a piercing pain dug onto his side. Peeta warily dragged the object from underneath him, bringing it into the dim light's gaze. The small spherical stone was covered with dust, the black soot sticking on. He raised a shaking finger and drew a clean streak upon the stone. The surface glimmered then dimmed as he realized what it was. A pearl.

And as those memories came rushing back to him, like a tidal wave, Peeta gazed at the pearl and closed his eyes. Her smell, her touch, her last words to him. His sweet mockingjay, her temper, her laugh and her voice. She was his soul. His life. And as the banging on the door, undoubtedly Haymitch, faded from his conscience, Peeta breathed the last word, huging the pearl close to his body. It was all that was left of her. All that remained. But he would treasure it. Like every promise he gave her. Like the word whispered that first night. Like _always_.


End file.
